How to Make This All Suck a Little Less

Maintaining holiday cheer shouldn’t be your burden

Ashley Abramson
Forge

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Photo: Sisoje/Getty Images

“Do you even like turkey?” I asked my husband last night over our dinner of pad thai as we mused out loud about what we’d make for Thanksgiving. The truth is, I don’t. I’m not really a fan of most parts of the traditional Thanksgiving spread. But until that point, it hadn’t occurred to me that this year, we could skip it all: the bird, the stuffing, the sweet potato casserole.

And almost as soon as the thought popped into my brain, I felt guilty. This Thanksgiving will look different than most, sure, but it’s still Thanksgiving.

You, like me, may have already settled with the idea that gathering with friends and family is off the table. And if that’s the case, then you, like me, may assume that the way to ease the pain of this Thanksgiving is to recreate the usual holiday routines as faithfully as possible. But trying to force some sense of normalcy on a very strange day may end up just making things worse.

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Ashley Abramson
Forge

Writer-mom hybrid. Health & psychology stories in NYT, WaPo, Allure, Real Simple, & more.